You Don't Know Jack cont.

One page to go! :D

Pages 5 and 6. Forgot to update yesterday but it's a page a day till the end of the week :)

You Don't Know Jack! cont.

More 'adventures' with Curtis and Tim.

You Don't Know Jack cont.

More 'adventures' with Curtis and Tim.

You Don't Know Jack cont.

I was rooting around recently and found a script for this 8 page story that I'd written nine years ago and starring Tim and Curtis. So I decided to dust if off, edit the dialogue a little and give the boys a quick outing for this Halloween!

With a little redesign along the way.

This is page 2 of 8, I'll be posting 2 pages a day for the week ;)

You Don't Know Jack!

I was rooting around recently and found a script for this 8 page story that I'd written nine years ago and starring Tim and Curtis. So I decided to dust if off, edit the dialogue a little and give the boys a quick outing for this Halloween!

With a little redesign along the way.

This is page 1 of 8, I'll be posting 2 pages a day for the week ;)

What can superhero books learn from Tintin?

Reaction to DC’s big news seems very mixed so far and with a poll on CBR currently showing that more people see it as a jumping off point than wish to buy all 52 new books, it may be a costly and time consuming move to retcon.

Personally, I think they’re taking the wrong approach to attracting new readers. After 70 years it’s not the characters that need tweaking but the dead weight of an ongoing, universal continuity. In my ideal world I’d be able to go to a comic shop and pick up a collection by my favourite creators that is an entire story, told from start to finish. Whether that’s in one volume or 5 I don’t really mind; I just fulfilled a childhood dream and bought a complete Tintin library.

At the moment though, buying a superhero comic is like reading the second book in a trilogy. You feel like you’ve missed important things that have come before and then when you finish, there are still things left to be resolved (only that task may be left to an entirely different creative team.) How much nicer would it be to be able to find a Superman book by a successful creative pairing which stands alone on its own merit? A Superman story that is that team’s vision of the classic character and doesn’t have to tie-in to ‘current continuity.’ Surely after all this time the characters and their world are established enough to no longer need a ‘canon’ continuity to support them.

One of DC’s successes from last year was the Earth One Superman graphic novel. Was the appeal simply another reboot of Superman or was it the knowledge amongst readers that they were getting a self contained Superman story in one whole, by a popular creative team?The beauty of Tintin is that I can read any Tintin book without having to read the others (ok a few do share a storyline but they can still stand alone). By reading all the Tintin books I get a richer and fuller picture of his world and the characters but not having that in no way spoils the one book I might pick up wherever it comes in the sequence. To me, that’s what comics should be supplying to the customer.

The first Tintin strip debuted in 1929, nearly a decade before Superman and yet the original Tintin stories still maintain their appeal and still sell without ever needing a ‘reboot.’ It can hardly be argued that Tintin is more universal or less of his time than the characters DC are trying to rebrand for their audience, nor is the core idea more appealing surely? In Tintin however, we find an all ages book which can be enjoyed by both adults and children. A book which parents enjoyed as a child and are happy to share with their children as they grow older. Tintin’s world is open to successive generations because its not tied down by continuity and each book can stand alone or be read as part of his series of adventures.

Perhaps if DC and other publishers of superhero comics wanted to nurture and attract new readers then the European model of books like Tintin and Asterix may be one to follow or at least give some serious consideration to?

The small joys of...

A little while ago I stumbled upon a website called comics.com, a one-stop shop for free newspaper comic strips which to be quite honest is a gem of a place to hang out on the net. Not only can you customise your own page to have the strips you want from their treasure house collection BUT they also have an option that allows you to pick strips to be emailed to you daily.

Yeah that's your favourite strips waiting for you every morning. It's hard to describe how much of a good thing that is when starting your day. A small slice of genius from Dog Eat Doug or Cow and Boy or Pearls Before Swine (to name my favourites) and your day starts off just that little bit brighter.

That's something I highly recommend for all diets, so pop over there and find some love. I was also not paid or asked to do this, I'm just in a positive mood today.

Sweet inspiration!

Green, red, orange, yellow, black, white, pink...

So basically Blackest Night was just to see who's the most powerful Jelly Baby?

What happened when? - Continuity

So I'm finally coming back to my first blog on here and clarifying/expanding on some of the points I made. Since that post there's been a lot of discussion of the pros of creator-owned comics and why they should be supported, which I couldn't agree with more so I won't go down that road. There's also been a creator owned vs superhero book argument which was possibly taken the wrong way but also quite well argued by Steve Niles. (He's a comic dynamo isn't he?) That leaves me with two things to clarify; first is to correct myself and say my first blog was more about attracting new readers than saying comics needed to be fixed, I should have reconsidered my own phrasing and the second thing is: continuity.

Where do you start with continuity? In many ways it can be what's great about comics. A rich tradition of storytelling that deepens the characters and adds an extra layer of depth and 'reality' to the universe the characters share. On the other hand it's constantly something creator's need to research and keep an eye on (often interrupting their plans or requiring them to abandon a storyline) or something they ignore entirely which contradicts the rules of the universe readers have come to love and leads to fan outrage all over the web. There have been many attempts to deal with continuity problems in the past and more recently. 1984 saw the first crisis with DC rebooting their entire universe (this was followed by another one more recently, and then another and then another...) Marvel used the Scarlet Witch to clean up those messy mutants and the Clone Saga and Brand New Day to give Spider-man fans traumatic headaches and years of therapy seeking angst.

Did any of these methods work? It's really hard to say, but one thing remains today that was the reason for them in the first place; new readers say the years of back history and continuity puts them off reading these classic heroes and their books. Re-launches seem to be the key thing at DC but for every new start they introduce by bringing back Hal, Ollie and Barry Allen they turn their back on the 'new generation' of heroes they brought in to replace them. While Dan Didio may be enjoying himself resurrecting his Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Flash, there's an entire generation of these characters' fans (who've read their stories for a good 10 years or so) who are seeing their GL, GA, Flash being sidelined and ignored to appease an older fan-base who in all likelihood, if not now a minority, have stopped reading comics entirely.

So what's the solution to the continuity conundrum?

I'm not sure there is one. There are many fans who despise the reboots and follow continuity to the letter, never missing a hair out of place in both shared universes. There are the 'multiple realities' options but they too just seem to lead to more confusion amongst new readers trying to find their way into these stories. In my opinion the ideal thing to do would be to loosen the ties of continuity. I'm not suggesting that it should be abandoned entirely but I've noticed in my own reading habits over the past few years that I more or less consider a change in creative teams as a continuity reboot anyway. Which is also what I'd really like to see and have decided to call 'The Simpsons' approach. (Not because they invented it but because it's such a long running series and everyone knows it.)

I'd suggest that comics allow creators to determine their own continuity when coming on to a book (especially large team books like X-Men, the Justice League and Avengers). Each new creative team can be viewed as a new start (like the never ending Simpsons reboot and why Maggie never ages) so you don't have to have read 40 years of history and events to keep up with the story or feel like you've missed out on something. The universe contains certain 'universal truths' that we are all familiar with and expect which will in turn allow a creator if they want, to refer back to major events that happened in another creator's arc before them. So if they want to expand on a thread that has come before and develop it, why not let them pay homage to a great storyline that way? (After all some incidents in the Simpsons have become touchstone events that become a universal truth in every episode despite the usual 'reboot' effect. Maud is still dead, Homer was an astronaut once and Sideshow Bob has had multiple attempts at killing Bart).

So I'd like to see a more flexible approach to continuity. Less focus on 'you can't ignore that' or 'but he/she is dead' and more enjoying a story on its own merits, with certain stories or story-lines (like a large summer event for example) being touchstone events that are constantly true. So if a writer prefers Wally West, he/she can write a Wally as Flash story and let it find its own audience. (Or Kyle or Connor or even Ben Reilly). There's no need to kill a major character every summer to get media attention (because we all know they'll come back anyway. Bucky did so there is no permanent death any more, probably not even for Death.) Just allow creators to do what they're good at, pick and choose their favourite toys from the box and tell good stories that remind us all why we loved this stuff in the first place.

P.S. I might just add as a sidenote that if publishers would like to cancel one of the multiple Batman, Superman, Spider-man or X-men books or minis a month and replace it with a mini exploring a concept for a new genre (with no superheroes) I really, really wouldn't mind. I'd also imagine it may bring in new readers too without them having to go to Vertigo and independent publishers or manga for a little diversity.

Why I hate Panini Books

The reason for me hating Panini Books is simple: bad binding on their reprints. My copy of Wolverine: Enemy of the State/Agent of SHIELD started to fall apart after one reading. After two read-throughs it now looks like this:

So if Panini don't care enough about their reprints to do a decent binding job, I'll just buy an original Marvel print from import. There's no difference in the cost and frankly, who wants a book that falls apart when you read it?

Piazza San Marco

I'm not feeling great so I'm giving in to my enthusiasm and previewing my new painting with this 'in progress' photo. Opinions very welcome :)

World's Finest

flyers sucks by ~DjBisparulz on deviantART

Words cannot describe how much I love this! You should also check out his gallery, he is quite simply a unique and remarkable artist. :)

Realism?

You know what really bugs me? Well to be honest a lot of things, but you're guaranteed to annoy me by saying comic art is too 'cartoony' or it should be more 'realistic'. You have a guy flying around in tights with a giant speech-bubble floating beside his head, kind of throws realism out the window don't you think?

What is it about 'suspension of disbelief' that allows you to believe a guy with a green ring and no imagination is the hero/patrol man for this sector of space BUT no he can't look anything less than an oil painting.

Speaking of which, Alex Ross; yeah the guy can paint (as long as his light source is from the left) but strip that away and he's not a great storyteller. Average at best. In my opinion the only remarkable aspect of his career is that he sold himself as a 'great painter' of comics rather than an 'average' penciller with average story telling ability.

Think that covers the rant for now. Nothing is too 'cartoony,' no style is preferable above others and painted art doesn't automatically make a comic 'amazing.'

Now I should really go and think about a follow up to that first blog and expanding on some of the points in it :\

Moon Dog

My first drawing of 2011 and it's for a future project I'm toying with.

Yes that is a dog in a space suit. :)

the impossibles one

Here's one of my old comic scripts turned into word art by 'wordle'

Troubles

I keep thinking about the comic industry for some reason recently, might be all the comic creators I have on twitter, or the slew of comic book based films coming out or that niggling little itch I always have to draw some of the bloody things but I'm thinking comics and what's wrong with them (or more specifically the American comic industry.)

The more I think about it the more I can see a list of things that all feed into each other:

1. Too many superhero books.
2. Too much emphasis on continuity and pandering to older readers.
3. Always chasing a new fad without examining it in full (holofoil and variant covers, digital comics etc.)
4. The fans themselves encouraging a lack of diversity.
5. Not enough risk taking by the major publishers.
6. Public perception of comics, what they are and what they expect from them.
7. Too many armchair critics being given more credence than they're worth.

What can be done about them? I may have some ideas and they're mostly personal and from what is an admittedly ever-growing, outsider perspective. If I was you I'd probably presume that this blog is a lead-up to a more detailed discussion of some of them though ;)